The invention relates to an improved means comprising a radially resilient center-pull cutting loop for excising an extended length of arteriosclerotic material from the lumen of an occluded artery.
The present invention constitutes an improvement upon the endarterectomy apparatus shown and described in commonly owned co-pending application, Ser. No. 073,252, filed Sept. 7, 1979 U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,511, which was in turn an improvement upon the basic endarterectomy apparatus shown and described in commonly owned co-pending application, Ser. No. 060,000, filed July 23, 1979, now abandoned.
Other than said co-pending applications and the two U.S. patents identified as prior art in the earlier filed one, I know of no art, prior or otherwise, which is material as to the subject invention.